Mommy To Be Exercises: What To Do

If you have read our post about what to avoid during pregnancy, you're probably looking for a few ideas about what TO do for pregnancy exercise.

First, make sure everything you do is comfortable. I mean physically: what your capabilities are and what feels good to your changing body. But also what feels good mentally: don't do anything that you just don't feel quite right subjecting your body and your baby to when you're expecting. If you feel like jumping is jiggling your baby, and it makes you nervous, don't do it.

Squats! Squats are a must during pregnancy to make you stronger for delivery. They also help when you have a newborn. Picture this: you're holding your infant with her wobbly little body that you must support with both arms and you drop her lovey. Are you going to just bend over and let your baby flop and flail back while you retrieve it?? No! You need to do a super low squat while holding baby upright and reach the ground to save the day. In fact you should probably practice these squats while holding a 10 lb sack of potatoes. And the sack should be open. :) 

To Do: start with feet a little wider than your hips. Squat down with your weight focused in your heels as low as your feel like you can control- try to get hips and knees to 90 degrees- and don't let your knees go in front of your toes. Push back up through heels strong. I once read that midwives of yesteryear recommended 300 a day for easy labor. Try doing ten at a time several times throughout the day, and see how many you accumulate. Challenge yourself and try to get ten more each day!


Legs must be wide enough to accommodate your growing belly!

Bird dogs. These safely strengthen your abdominals, back extensors, glutes, and scapular muscles. Doing exercises like leg extensions on hands and knees is good once baby comes too- you can hold yourself over baby, make kissey faces and coo at her. Babies recognize faces best anyway! 

To Do: get on hands and knees and do a little pelvic tilt- tucking your hips forward so you have a neutral spine and bracing your core. Then lift leg with opposite arm. Alternate.

Try not to let your trunk and hips twist as you lift!

Walking or swimming. It's important to get some cardio in and keep moving throughout pregnancy. Walking and swimming are low impact which is perfect during pregnancy.

Standing bent rows. These are excellent for posture muscles to keep back pain at bay as your body is changing. It will also help once the baby arrives because you'll be toting her around all time (remember our sack of potatoes practice??) and you want to prevent that forward-rounded shoulders mommy posture! 

To do: stand with feet slightly apart and knees just slightly bent. Bend forward at the hips until your trunk nears parallel to the floor, letting your arm hang straight down toward the floor. Grab a weight of some sort (dumbbell, water bottle, that sack of potatoes I keep mentioning) and with either one of both arms pull your elbow up toward the sky keeping forearm perpendicular to the floor in a rowing motion. Lower down with control.


There are many other exercises that are safe to perform while pregnant but these are a few to get your started and that would benefit any pregnancy workout routine.




What are some of your favorite pregnancy workouts? Let us know in the comments!